“...the output of the average well drilled in the Bakken slumps by 85 percent over the first three years of production... by comparison, the production decline at Ghawar, the world’s largest conventional oil field in Saudi Arabia, is about 5 percent per year. “The problem is that all shale plays ramp down much faster than conventional oil fields,” said Hughes, pointing out that steep decline curves are inherent with shale oil fields and yet rarely mentioned in breathless discussions of the riches of the Bakken and Eagle Ford.”
From a longer profile of David Hughes by Jeremy Miller titled "Statistical Realism: David Hughes crunches unpopular numbers for the shale oil boom"
